Nowadays the chance for a dialectically oriented theory of psychology
seems to me even more remote. At any rate I think that a full
understanding of Vygotsky's method requires us to dig into his
understanding of Marx's dialectics.
Myriam
Myriam Torres
University of New Mexico
College of Education
On Wed, 8 May 1996, vera p
john-steiner wrote:
> Arne,
> There was no chance for a dialectically oriented theory of psychology in
> the USA in the late sixties and early seventies, nevertheless, we worked
> on Mind in Society. The postscript that I wrote with Ellen Souberman was
> considered very poor by many of my closest friends, and perhaps it is,
> but it tried to address the challenge of thinking in ways that emphasize
> unification as a developmental process, quantitative and qualitative
> changes, etc. I think that it had an impact on some.
> We have just finished an article for the Educational Psychologist, a very
> mainstream publication in which we have a short section on Ilyenkov, it
> was cut back because the readers, in several cycles of criticism wanted
> none of it, but a small section survived. It should be out in September
> and we will circulate it. It is hard for me to think of
> historical-cultural theory without a central role for dialectics.
> And I do hope that Germany, the historical home of Hegel, Marx and
> Engels, is not a totally closed forum for the varied re-interpretations
> of dialectical thought and progressive action in a new and saddened,
> informed, and transformed sense of what is being explored in countries
> such as Brazil, and in some form even in Hungary and Poland, etc.
> Vera